We are all story-shaped.
Like magnets to the refrigerator door, stories adhere to both mind and heart.
Stories stir up the emotions that operate below the radar of the mind.
Stories impact how one views God, themselves, others, and the world.
Stories sneak past mental defenses and imprint the sub-conscious mind with both good and bad, truth and lies, fantasy and reality.
Stories transport meaning, ideologies, and values.
Stories create, reframe, and shift a person’s perspective, and thus, their behavior.
Stories leave indelible fingerprints upon our lives.
Stories shape us into the people that we are.
The stories of our family and culture (TV, books), both past and present, form our ideas of self, family, purpose, and even God. They leave fingerprints. These “secondary” stories boldly weave their ideologies into our minds and distort life, creating a false reality where:
Man is the center of the universe instead of God.
Family produces dysfunctional adults who drain society rather than build society.
Relationships are self-centered and, therefore, fragmented and broken.
Life focuses on what is temporal instead of eternal.
Our hearts cry out for a grand meta-narrative that transcends our story―that gives value to the self, meaning to relationships, and purpose to this life. Such a story exists. It begins with God, “In the beginning God…” and ends with God, “Surely, I am coming quickly.”
The Bible’s story leaves God’s fingerprint on lives, families, and society. It is a story where:
God is the center of the universe;
Man has purpose and dignity;
History has a beginning and a finale;
Trials and tragedies are transformed into triumph;
and Hope prevails and truth wins.
Believers know fragments of that story, but few know that story from beginning to end. Secondary stories replace that primary story when the light of that story grows dim. Consequently, man misunderstands the meaning of life and wastes his life.
What happens when those within the church only know bits and pieces of His Story and cannot tell its story?
Sexual immorality and idolatry increase as the understanding of God, as He has revealed Himself through the Scriptures, grows dim.
When people don’t know life’s Creator and His Story, life simply does not make sense and
people live narcissistic lives where God is in none of their thoughts.